Welcome Ryan! LACS is excited to have you join our intellectual community!
Tell us a little about yourself and your main research interests.
I received my PhD in Luso-Brazilian Cultural and Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2023. My research has focused on Black consciousness, cultural activism and gender constructs in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul. Despite the stereotypical images of whiteness and masculine bravado associated with the region and its folk symbol, the gaúcho, I study the cultural production of gendered Black subjects from this frontier state. Black sul-rio-grandenses have profoundly impacted and transformed the development of racial consciousness and liberation throughout Brazil. I felt obligated to center Blackness in my studies of Brazil beginning in 2014 following the police killing of Eric Garner. I am originally from outside of Philadelphia, and have most recently called Brasília home, prior to arriving at U-M. I have also lived in Chile and Argentina, and have relatives in the latter.
This fall, you are teaching LACS 455: Afro-Brazilian Cultural Studies and LACS 355: Contemporary Debates and Advanced Concepts in Portuguese Language. What will the learning experience be like for students in these courses?
I strive for a supportive and warm learning environment where students may step out of their comfort zone and test new ideas and reasoning, provided they are informed and evidence-based. Coming of age as an educator in the context of the #MeToo and Black Lives Movements; attacks on academic freedom and Critical Race Theory; and state-backed extremism, xenophobia and toxic masculinity, I see teaching as an anchor for modeling non-violence, anti-racism and LGBTQIA+ inclusivity. I believe the classroom is a space for demonstrating responsible citizenship and transforming society.
In terms of course-specific details, I have organized a guided virtual visit to the Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo with “Afro-Brazilian Cultural Studies,” and expect to invite an additional guest speaker or two in both of my classes. In my classes, students will use Brazil and Portuguese as a reflection point for considering their own place and responsibility in race, gender and class-based social structures, and the way their language use reflects these dynamics.
I often tell my students that o Brasil tem tudo (Brazil has it all). It is a place that I care deeply about, and has something to teach everyone. I hope that through my passion for and knowledge of the material, students will feel motivated and empowered to continue to engage with Brazil and Portuguese well beyond this semester. I also hope they do so with responsibility, sensitivity, and empathy, critically recognizing the colonial legacies of the relationship between the United States and Brazil and Latin America.
What are some big ideas that you hope students take away from studying Portuguese and Afro-Brazilian culture with you? How can students apply what they have learned outside of the classroom?
In my advanced Portuguese course, the main objective is for students to build confidence communicating with paragraph-length discourse. There are many sticking points for English or Spanish speakers learning Portuguese – the placement of object pronouns in formal writing vis-à-vis informal conversation, the usage of demonstrative adjectives and pronouns and different ways to express the conditional, to name a few. Students will develop the tools to comfortably express themselves for their formal writing needs, at the same time that we address colloquial language usage and vocabulary often lacking in traditional textbooks. The course title, “Contemporary Debates and Advanced Concepts in Portuguese Language,” signals another key objective – addressing the myriad ways the language has transformed to reflect contemporary realities, be it through explorations of gender-inclusive language or the Indigenous and African influences in vocabulary and structures. Not only will we address these complex shifts and histories, we will also investigate the mechanisms through which racialized and gendered subjects address historical violences embedded in the language. In addition to a textbook that addresses the reality of Brazilian Portuguese usage in the contemporary moment, I incorporate pedagogical materials from the Brazilian Ministry of Education designed for diverse and inclusive language classrooms.
In “Afro-Brazilian Cultural Studies,” students will come away with the knowledge and grounding to engage thoughtfully on a variety of topics relevant to the historical and contemporary experience of Brazilians of African descent. The sustained reflection that this course facilitates will encourage understanding and contextualization of the race and class-based struggles and dynamics facing not only Brazilians, but racialized populations throughout the Americas. The field of Cultural Studies in which I was trained involves reading “cultural products” as texts. Students will develop skills to read and analyze images, sound, and social media in addition to literature. I have organized the course thematically, addressing major currents in Black Brazilian thought and culture: travessias (crossings) and mobility, ancestrality and memory, and quilombismo and diaspora, among others. These concepts and frameworks may serve as models for students’ consideration of their own community-building, political mobilization and citizenship.
What are some of the goals that you have set for yourself while working in this role?
I have three main goals as the Afro-Brazilian Studies Research and Teaching Fellow: first, developing Portuguese language and Afro-Brazilian Studies at U-M with support from the Brazil Initiative; second, completing my book-length project on Black consciousness and activism in Rio Grande do Sul; and finally, exploring new avenues of research in interracial and interethnic relations in Brazil.
When you are not pursuing research or teaching, what do you like to do for fun?
In my free time I enjoy traveling and exploring. Recently, I trekked in the area of the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park guided by members of the Kalunga quilombo community. Quilombos are autonomous communities formed by the descendants of escaped enslaved peoples, often in Brazil's hinterland. The Kalunga community is the largest quilombo by land area in the entire country, and received special recognition by the United Nations Environmental Program in 2021 as a TICCA (Territories and Areas Conserved by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities). I also enjoy bicycle assembly, maintenance and touring, and I am looking forward to getting to know Ann Arbor and the surroundings on two wheels!
